Raghuram Rajan, Raj Chetty on panels to review US Federal Reserve functioning
Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, Delhi-born American economist Raj Chetty and senior Microsoft executive Asha Sharma have been roped in by the US Federal Reserve to review the manner in which it conducts monetary policy.
The five task forces announced by the newly appointed US Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh also include former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, former Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.
“I am honoured that the best minds from a range of disciplines have agreed to work with us to sharpen our performance as an institution. The goal is straightforward: to ensure the Fed is best positioned to achieve our objectives in this consequential time,” Warsh said in a statement on Thursday.
He said the US economy has changed significantly over the last generation, and each task force will carefully consider whether policymakers’ means, methods, analytical tools and policy approaches can be improved.
The five task forces will examine areas central to the broad conduct of monetary policy.
They will be co-led by external advisers – accomplished economists, business leaders, and former central bank practitioners – with deep expertise in their fields. Supported by Federal Reserve staff, they will operate independently, with a mandate to follow the evidence, provide candid feedback, and produce rigorous findings for the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve said in a statement.
Rajan will serve on the Balance Sheet Policy task force alongside Harvard economist Karen Dynan and former Federal Reserve Governor Jeremy Stein.
The panel will examine the costs, benefits and institutional implications of the Federal Reserve’s current balance sheet regime, including its asset holdings and their role in implementing monetary policy. Chetty, a Harvard University economist, co-led the Data task force with McMillon and the University of Chicago economist, Kevin Murphy.
The group will focus on improving the quality and timeliness of real-world economic signals that inform the Federal Reserve’s policy decisions. Chetty is known for pioneering the use of large administrative and real-time datasets to study economic mobility, inequality and labour markets in the United States.
Wisconsin-born Sharma, the executive vice president of Microsoft and CEO of XBox, will serve on the Productivity and Jobs task force alongside venture capitalist Andreessen and Stanford economist Charles I Jones.
The panel will assess the economic impact of emerging general-purpose technologies, including artificial intelligence, on productivity, employment and economic growth. The Communications task force, led by Peter Fisher, Arminio Fraga and former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, will review how the Federal Reserve communicates its policy deliberations and decisions during periods of uncertainty.
The Inflation Frameworks task force, led by Harvard economist Greg Mankiw, Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent and former Bank for International Settlements adviser William White, will revisit how the central bank understands and responds to the drivers of inflation.